The general acceptance of industry automation as an essential requirement for improving productivity has increased the acceptance of the robot, or manipulator apparatus, as a mechanism for achieving automated industrial applications.
Numerous robot configurations have been designed to meet specific industrial needs, i.e., cutting, welding, assembly, etc. The designs of many of the commercially available robots are unique to a particular application and employ complex mechanical design features and sophisticated software and control functions dedicated to the specific industrial application.
The acceptance of robots as a useful industrial "tool" has resulted in a market demand for a robot system exhibiting the simplified design considerations of a machine tool suitable for control by conventional computer numerical control, direct numerical control and off-line programming with language such as Automatic Programmed Tool (APT).